Lately I have read about a group that wants to apologize to Japan for us dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This has been met by wide objections from Americans who protest, "Ha! They asked for it when they bombed Pearl Harbor first. They should be apologizing to us." Another objection centers on deterrent. "It wasn't nice, but we had to nuke 'em to save American lives." These may be persuasive arguments for why we should have done it in 1945, but they are not relevant to why we should not apologize in 2009. I am sympathetic to the apology supporters for reasons outlined below.
Reason 1: Japan's decision makers and those they commanded killed a bunch or our innocent people, but so did our retaliation. Even if necessary and justifiable, we killed a bunch of their innocent people in addition to (or instead of) their decision makers.
Reason 2: It has been 65 years and we have been friends and growing together as allies in world leadership all that time. Today there are adults living in both countries whose grandparents weren't even born when these horrific acts of war took place. Japan is not a current adversary with whom we have to talk tough for our national security.
Reason 3: What the heck is the harm in it for us? What if we apologize before they do? That only makes us look magnanimous in their eyes and the eyes of the global community.
I just looked up "apology" in www.dictionary.com. It is defined as "a written or spoken expression of one's regret, remorse, or sorrow for having insulted, failed, injured, or wronged another". I noted that there are two ORs and no ANDs in that definition. Surely most of us feel at least sorrow for the injury caused to at least the innocent children killed and maimed when we dropped the big ones. That strikes me as justification enough to offer the apology. I also note that nothing in the definition says those who offer the apology must feel or believe themselves to be the greater transgressors than the party to whom the apology is offered.
My wife gets home today from a 5 day visit with her parents. I didn't complete all the chores I promised I'd complete. I shall apologize for not meeting my goal. I shall not say "I'm sorry I didn't get all my stuff done but YOU left the car lights on and killed the battery TWICE last week." I'll just tell her I'm sorry I didn't get all my stuff done and how great it is to see her. She knows she killed the battery twice. This is the way you need to act with those important to you to keep the relationship strong and healthy.
9 comments:
Yeah. An apology could ease potential tensions and bitterness that might continue to interfere with international relations. Maybe in this case it will lessen Japanese nationalist angst enough that they'll stop figuratively flipping off the world by illegally whaling.
I am not much into meaningless apologies such as this. First of all the "bombs" did not kill any more people than did conventional bombs, just did it more quickly. The battle of Okinawa showed everyone the extent to which the Japanese would defend their territory, let alone their homeland. The Japanese were very much into sacrificing their lives back then.
It can be easily and forcefully argued that the "bombs" saved many more Japanese lives than it did American lives and it is estimated that it saved upwards of 1 million American lives.
An apology would be of no use except to make some people feel better about themselves.
Al Montgomery
Al M. I never said the Japanese were not real stinkers during WWII. In fact I didn't even say we shouldn't have nuked them. I just ask what's the harm (today) in an apology from us if it (as you say) makes people feel better about themselves. I do concede that apologies sometimes seem sort of silly when it's the descendants of dead people apologizing for what their ancestors did. But again, if it makes people feel better (transgressors and the transgressed) I say do it.
Johnny - Now I am confused. If you are not saying that we should not have dropped the "bombs", then what is the apology for?
And are there not others that may deserve an apology first? Perhaps the 19,000 or so inocent French civilians that we killed in the runup to D-Day and the fighting in Normandy just after? Perhaps the citizens of Dresden that almost equalled those of Hiroshima? I don't think there is any end to your list if you are going to be equally magnanimous, although you might actually feel "rosy" afterwards from all the apologies. I am just saying there is no need in such meaningless prostration.
Al M.
Al L. My dentist apologizes when he hurts me even though he needs to do it and should do it. It makes us both feel good. If it feels good, do it. While we're at it I think we should apologize to Fidel Castro for trying to assassinate him now that he's lying around dying, even though he let the Ruskies put missile sites there. We could use another good close in vacation spot with good rum and Caribbean music. You can have the cigars.
Al M, I just addressed you as Al L instead of Al M. I don't know how to edit that. So, I apologize for it.
Al L.Indeed! You should apologize. Accepted. Now, we can all feel better.
Al M.
Wow! The two of you set whole new standards for self-delusion and historical denial.
First off, to declare the categorical mass murder of almost a QUARTER OF A MILLION Japanese, MOSTLY CIVILIANS to be somehow a humane solution is bordering on insanity.
Secondly, the persistent lie, that the Japanese had continued to fight and this fight would have cost millions of lives, including up to one million American lives, is predicated on ignoring the historical fact, that the U.S. was at no point in time considering either one of two points, that would have enabled the Japanese leadership to surrender:
a) The explicit exclusion of the the TennÅ (Japanese Emperor) from war crime charges and guarantees for the continuation of the monarchy.
b) The acceptance of a conditional surrender, rather than an unconditional, i.e. no occupation.
A calculated decision was made to basically purchase a notch in the Damocles sword of American military might with 225.000 Japanese lives.
Of course it was helpful in making this decision to get a world wide show of power (or ruthlessness?) out of it at the same time.
However, I have to agree on two fronts with the Al:
1. There are others deserving apologies, long before the Japanese, for American mass murder. Such as the Native American tribes, viciously murdered in a decade-long campaign of multiple genocides, including death camps (winter camps with intentionally suppressed food deliveries) , biological warfare (small pocks infested cloth and covers) and outright ethnic cleansing (extermination of settlements by head shots to men, women and children, burning of groups of people in building, etc.)
2. To apologize without truly understanding the own wrongdoing is worthless.
And on a side note:
If you want to apologize to somebody, consider the Iranian people, who were deprived by American oil interests of their own democratically elected government in 1953 and have since suffered half a century under brutal dictators and a theocracy alike - and you wonder why they are chanting "Death to America"?
KK
KK, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I don't necessarily disagree with any of them but I have some thoughts about them. You and Al M have both suggested that there are others that we may owe an apology first. I agree that it would be good to start with the highest priority in the list of those to whom we should apologize. However I believe that starting anywhere is better than not starting at all while we wait forever to agree on the priority.
I am thinking about your argument that to apologize without truly understanding their own wrongdoing is worthless. I agree that if truly and wholly culpable one should be truly understanding and contrite about their own culpability when apologizing. However, I do not believe one should withhold apology waiting for that total insight to occur. This might result in no aplolgies ever being given.
On a final note about apologies, I have also thought it a bit hollow for a people to apologize for what their long dead ancestors did before they were even born. For example, I had perhaps sixteen southern white ancestors alive during the civil war. I have no idea what they look like, what their thoughts were or even whether 100% of them were southern and white. I'm not sure why my generation apologizing for, say, slavery should be a big help. Heck, some of my ancestors might even have been slaves.
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